Pirn or cone holder



April 30, 1957 E, J, MCBRIDE 2,790,610

PIRN OR CONE HOLDER Filed July 29, 1954 V j l'fifi'lliliiim:11:11:11;1--

I 24 I 30 1e l2 INVENTOR.

EDWARD J. memos ATTORNEY United States Patent Oflice Patented Apr. 30, 1957 PlRN R CONE HOLDER Edward J. McBride, Huntington, Pa.

Application July 29, 1954, Serial No. 446,558

2 Claims. (Cl. 242-130) This invention relates to a pirn or cone holder of the type shown in my prior Patents No. 2,549,618 of April 17, 1951, and No. 2,636,696 of April 28, 1953.

One object of the invention is to produce an improved holder of the type set forth.

Up to the time of my Patent 2,636,696 set screws were used to secure the cone or pirn holder to the shank forming part of the creel.

In my said Patent 2,636,696 I disclosed a construction in which the pirn or cone holder was held in position by means of a snap-on spring action instead of set screws. This construction proved to be satisfactory and sold, and is still selling, in large numbers.

The object of the present invention is to produce an improved construction in which the holder is secured to the supporting shank in a positive manner so as to guard against its accidental disengagement. A still further object is to facilitate the application and removal of the holder to, and from, the shank by dispensing with necessity of overcoming the action of the snap-on retaining spring as must be done when the holder of my Patent 2,636,696 is used.

These and other objects, are attained by my invention as set forth in the following specification and in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a view, partly in longitudinal, vertical section and partly in side elevation, of a pirn or cone holder embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is an end elevational view looking in the direction of line 2-2 on Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 3-3 on Fig. 2, showing the pirn or cone holder in the position of Fig. 1 in which it is locked to the supporting shank.

Fig. 4 is similar to Fig. 3 but showing the pirn or cone holder in released position in which it can be removed from the supporting shank.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged section taken on line 5--5 on Fig. 1.

The structure and use of the holder are set forth in my piior patents and in some of the patents referred to in my said patents. It is therefore now merely necessary to state that the device under consideration includes a shank which is suitably secured to a fixed support 12 which forms part of the creel not shown. The shank 10 is adapted detachably to support a holder which carries yarn-bearing pirn or a cone. The holder itself includes a hub 14 at its outer end, a disc 16 at its inner end, and a number of spring arms 18 which are adapted, yieldably and adjustably, to engage the interior of a pirn or cone 20 carrying yarn 22. The outer ends of arms 18 are permanently secured to hub 14, and their inner ends are slidably secured to disc 16 in the manner set forth in my prior Patent No. 2,636,696, or in any equivalent manner. In addition to arms 18, the shank 10 also carries spring arms 24 which are fully disclosed in my said prior patents. Since the arms 18 and 24 form no part of the present invention, they will not be further referred to.

The inner, or right hand, end of the holder is detachably secured to the shank in the manner disclosed in my prior Patent No. 2,636,696, namely, by providing disc 16 with a key hole opening including a relatively large annular opening 26 and a relatively small, rectilinear, opening 28 leading from the periphery of the disc to central opening 26. The central opening 26 is large enough freeiv to receive the thick portion of shank 10 but opening 28 is only large enough to permit the passage therethrough of the reduced portion 30 of the shank. Therefore, to place the thick part of the shank 10 in opening 26, it is necessary to pass the reduced portion 30 of the shank through opening 28 and then to move the holder longitudinally until reduced portion 30 is to the left of disc 16 as shown in Fig. 1. By this arrangement, shank 10 is free to move longitudinally, but not radially, and therefore, it can not be removed from the disc without first bringing reduced portion 30 thereof into registration with opening 28.

In my prior Patent No. 2,636,696, the hub supporting the outer ends of the holder was secured to the end of the shank by providing the hub with a U-shaped opening for admitting the end of the shank and by placing a horseshoe spring in the opening and providing a groove in the end of the shank adapted to be frictionally engaged by the spring. As above stated this construction is practical and operative but there was always a chance of accidential disengagement and the application of the holder to, and its removal from, the shank involved the exertion of force sufficient to overcome the action of the spring.

in the present improvement, the opening in the hub and the horse-shoe spring in the opening are dispensed with and a positive, and more easily operated lock is provided for detachably securing the shank to the hub.

As shown, I provide the hub 14 with a recess 32 ,for receiving the outer end of the shank and with a radially extending slot 34 for receiving a thin locking plate 36. The locking plate 36 is provided with an opening 38, the diameter of which is larger than the diameter of the shank, and is normally urged radially outwardly by a spring 40 seated in a recess 42 in the hub and engaging a bent-over lip 44 formed on the periphery of the plate 36. The plate 36 is also provided with a smaller opening 16 which movably engages a pin 48 which has a driven fit in an opening 50. It will be noted that opening 46 has a diameter much larger than the diameter of locking pin 48 so as to permit radial movement of the locking plate 36 relative to the shank 10 while preventing complete removal of the plate from the hub. The outer end of the shank is provided with a groove 52 adapted to be engaged by the upper or lower adjacent portion of plate 36 depending on whether the parts are in the position of Fig. 3 or in the position of Fig. 4.

According to this invention, to secure the holder to the shank, it is merely necessary, first to place the shank in opening 26, in the manner above set forth, and then to move the holder longitudinally of the shank so as to cause the outer end of the shank to enter recess 32. This movement of the shank depresses locking plate 36 until the groove 52 on the end of the shank registers with the portion of plate 36 which defines opening 38 whereupon spring 40, urging the locking plate upwardly, as viewed in Fig. 3 engages the locking plate with the groove 52 in the shank. To remove the holder, locking plate 36 is depressed to the position shown in Fig. 4 so as to disengage it from the shank and the holder is moved, to the left as shown in Fig. 1, until opening 28 in disc 16 is in registration with groove 30 in the shank. The holder can now be removed from the shank by moving it radially outwardly relative to the shank.

By this arrangement, the plate 36 locks the holder in a positive manner and, because the only function of spring 40 is to raise locking plate 36, it need not be strong. Therefore, it takes but little pressure to insert the end of the shank into recess 32 to effect engagement of the locking plate With groove 52 of the shank and it takes very little pressure to compress spring 40 to permit movement of the holder, longitudinally of the shank to disengage the end of the shank from the recess.

It will also be noted that the lip 44 is so positioned that it is gripped and depressed, naturally and with hardly an elfort, on the part of an operator pulling off the empty holders in order to replace them with holders carrying yarn-bearing pirns or cones.

The pin 48 is preferably in the nature of a longitudinally split cylinder made of a spring metal and is compressed and inserted into opening 46. See Fig. 2.

What I claim is:

1. A pin or cone holder comprising a shank, a disc adapted detachably to engage the inner end of said shank, a hub, a plurality of spring arms each having its outer end rigidly connected to said hub and having its inner end slidably connected to said disc, there being a recess in said hub adapted to receive the outer end of said shank, said hub also having a transverse slot formed therein which intersects said recess, a movable locking plate in said slot, said locking plate having an opening therein through which said outer end of said shank can freely pass, there being anamiular groove in said outer end of said shank adapted to be engaged by the Wall of said plate which defines said opening, a spring for biasing said locking plate into an eccentric position relative to the axis of said shank to engage said wall of said locking plate with said groove, means for moving said locking plate to its concentric position to disengage said wall of said plate from said groove, and means for limiting the movement of said plate relative to said hub, to prevent removal of said plate from said slot.

27 The structure recited in claim 1 in which said means includes a second opening formed in said plate, and a pin passing through said hub and through said opening, the diameter of said pin being smaller than the diameter of said second opening.

UNITED STATES PATENTS References Cited in the file of this patent 2,592,956 Saber Apr. 15, 1952 2,636,696 McBride Apr. 28, 1953 

